US Border Patrol: About 420,000 arrests last year

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the U.S. Border Patrol says his agents made about 420,000 arrests in the budget year that ended in September, a 15 percent increase from the previous year.

It was the second consecutive year that arrests went up since the Border Patrol recorded a near 40-year low in 2011.

Chief Michael Fisher released the preliminary numbers Thursday at an immigration law conference. He says the arrests account for about 320,000 to 330,000 different people.

Fisher did not say how many arrests were made along the Mexican border.

The Border Patrol has been reporting increases in border traffic in Rio Grande Valley in South Texas since 2012. Fisher says much of the increase in arrests is due to people from countries other than Mexico crossing the southern border.